


Where the River Meets the Sea

by Jael, pir8grl



Series: Voyages of the Canary [8]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Baby Fic, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Romance, Romantic Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 03:43:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12718950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jael/pseuds/Jael, https://archiveofourown.org/users/pir8grl/pseuds/pir8grl
Summary: Estuaries are formed where a river meets a sea.  They are sometimes referred to as the ‘nurseries of the sea.’  So consider yourselves warned - here be shameless baby fic!





	Where the River Meets the Sea

**London, England**

 

“Leonard.” 

Leonard Snart awoke to a dreadful crick in his back from falling asleep hunched over the table in the galley. He blinked to see Martin Stein standing beside him with a kind smile and somewhat tired eyes, and jerked into full wakefulness. 

“Leonard, you have a daughter,” the older man said kindly, stifling a yawn.

“Sara?” 

“Is fine. They both are. Congratulations, and, since I didn’t get a chance to say so before, welcome home.” He eyed the younger man critically. “The ladies still have some cleaning up to do. Why don’t you step into Mister Rory’s cabin and freshen up a bit?” 

“But -”

“They’re not going anywhere, Leonard. Wash.” 

***

Amaya opened the door to Sara and Leonard’s cabin at Leonard’s quiet knock. She gave him yet another slightly weary but genuine smile and kissed his cheek before attempting to slip out. 

Leonard stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Thank you for looking after them,” he said simply. 

Amaya favored him with a brilliant smile. “It was my pleasure. Now, go be a father.” 

Leonard looked past her into the room and his face took on an expression of reverent awe. Amaya quietly exited the cabin, drawing the door shut after herself. 

Sara lay on their bunk, propped up on a pile of pillows. She was wearing a worn linen shift, and her hair was brushed out over her shoulders. He’d never seen her more radiant. 

If, well, exhausted.

“I have something for you,” she murmured, smiling. 

“I can see that,” Leonard replied, eyes locked on the bundle she held cradled in her arms. 

Sara’s eyes dropped to her daughter’s tiny face, then back to Leonard’s. She slipped one hand under the pillows and extended it to him with his watch balanced on her palm. “Mick found it in that warehouse. I meant to give it back to you last night -”

“But we got distracted,” Leonard finished the sentence, sliding into the bunk carefully next to her. He accepted his watch - once his most prized possession - and slipped it into his pocket with barely a glance, all attention focused on the treasure Sara held. 

“She’s so small,” he marvelled, carefully studying long lashes curled on chubby cheeks and a sweet pink mouth. 

“She’s big enough,” Sara replied ruefully, shifting the baby in her arms.

Leonard flushed and leaned in to kiss her forehead gently. “Forgive me, love. Are you well?” 

“I’m fine,” Sara told him, chuckling softly. 

“You’ve been known to say that after Martin has just finished stitching up a wound,” he protested. 

“I’m fine,” she insisted stubbornly. “It was...well. Not pleasant, certainly, but no worse than I’d been led to believe. And not so bad as many of the stories I’d heard!” She glanced down at the baby with a smile. “And it’s amazing how quickly the memory starts to fade…”

Leonard leaned in closer, resting his chin on Sara’s shoulder. “She’s beautiful. Just like you. Can I -?” He held out his hands, which were shaking ever so slightly. 

“Well, I certainly hope you don’t think I’ll be the one holding her all the time,” Sara grumbled good-naturedly as she passed him the baby. “Breath, Len,” she prodded gently, after a long moment. 

He sucked in a deep breath, still staring at their tiny miracle. “She is the most perfect thing I’ve ever seen.” 

“Yeah, she is,” Sara agreed, settling more comfortably on the pillows.

Leonard leaned in to kiss her, jostling the baby slightly and earning them a soft peep of protest. Sara took the baby back to cuddle her, and rested back against Len’s chest. Sara’s little blue glass pendant caught his eye as they shifted, and he searched in his pocket. 

“I have something for you,” he said, finally coming up with a sapphire ring and reaching for her hand. 

To his surprise, Sara pulled back from his grasp. 

“No.” 

“Sara?” he asked, trying not very successfully to mask the hurt from his voice. 

“I mean...not right now. We’ve spoken of this before…” 

“And we both agreed that we weren’t quite those sort of people.” 

“And we weren’t...then.” Sara nibbled her lip, eyeing him. “But Len...people change. When you were...gone, the others, they told me they’d swear that I was your widow, so people wouldn’t think ill of the child. I think...I think now, I would like to hear those words.” 

He relaxed palpably. “As you wish, love. Do you want to go home?” 

“No,” she told him firmly. “I want to be married here, with the family we’ve chosen for ourselves.” 

Leonard nodded. “All right,” he said dubiously. “But who will officiate? You’re the captain.” 

“Martin is a rabbi. If that’s all right with you?” 

He laughed in relief, at least until Sara elbowed him in the ribs. “Don’t you dare wake her.” 

“Yes, dear.” 

He noticed Sara’s eyelids were fluttering. “Rest, love.” 

“Mmm…” 

He smiled a little, then paused as a thought occurred to him. “What shall we call her? We thought we’d have so much time to talk about it...and then…”

Sara blinked up at him, suddenly awake again. She looked sad for a moment. “When I...well. When I thought I’d have to make the decision myself...I thought that if it was a girl, I’d like to call her Pearl. My treasure from the sea.” 

“I’m sensing a ‘but?’” 

Sara appeared to make a decision, nodding to herself. “But...Mick is your oldest friend, and he’s done so much for us. He looked after the ship and the crew when I couldn’t. He brought you back to me.” 

Leonard looked thoughtful. “How does that work? Mick - Michael -”

“Michaela.” 

“Michaela Pearl?” 

“Mmmm…” 

Sara was nearly asleep again. Len kissed the top of her head, then shifted the baby to his own arms. “Michaela Pearl,” he told her, almost seeming to caress the name with his voice. “What do you think of that?” 

Michaela Pearl emitted a tiny little coo, and sleepily settled back against her father’s shoulder. 

***

Some interminable amount of time later, Leonard was propped up slightly awkwardly next to Sara, Michaela still sleeping in his arms, while he himself was in a state that wasn’t quite sleep but wasn’t quite wakefulness.

He didn’t even hear Amaya enter.

“Leonard,” she said quietly, trying not to disturb Sara. 

He blinked drowsily. “Hmm?” 

“Why don’t you give me the baby, so you can get some proper sleep?” 

“No,” he replied automatically, struggling to sit up straight and look alert. No one was taking his child from him. Not after all he’d gone through to get back to them...

“I’m not taking her anywhere,” Amaya said, in a low voice that was laced with amusement. “I’m just going to put her in her cradle.” 

“Cradle?” 

“Yeah, Snart,” Mick answered, barging into the cabin and not particularly bothering to modulate his voice. (Sara didn’t even twitch.) “It’s a thing you put a baby in, so you don’t have to hold it all the time.” 

“We don’t have one.” 

“Yeah, you do.” The first mate deposited his and Nate’s creation near the foot of the bunk. 

Len straightened up, truly awake now. “Mick...that’s beautiful.” 

“Nate built it, and Mick did the carving,” Amaya supplied, deftly taking the sleeping infant from Len’s arms. 

The big man blushed.“What’s her name, anyway?” he asked, deflecting attention from himself...or trying to. 

Leonard couldn’t help but smile. “Her name is Michaela Pearl.” 

Mick looked startled. “What?” 

“You heard me,” Len replied, with an easy grin. “You looked after Sara and the baby when I couldn’t. You looked after the ship and crew when Sara couldn’t. None of us would be here, if not for you.” 

His oldest friend just stared at him for a long moment. Amaya, next to him, put a hand to her mouth as she rocked his namesake, her smile not quite hidden.

“I...um...can I hold her?” Mick finally asked, jerkily. 

Amaya smiled brilliantly and settled the baby in his big hands. “Mind her head,” she murmured. 

“She’s so tiny,” Mick marvelled. Michaela blinked open her big blue eyes and gurgled. “Hullo there. I’m...I guess...I’m -”

“Uncle Mick,” Sara supplied from where she’d been watching quietly. She propped herself up on one elbow and leaned into Len’s side. He immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders. 

Amaya helped Mick set the baby in the cradle. “There now...all snug.” 

“For the moment,” Sara observed, shifting a little. “I’m sure the peace can’t last, but I’ll take it for now.” She looked up at Mick. “What Leonard said...it goes for me too.”

“It was her idea,” Leonard added. “The name.”

Mick stared at them again, then glanced away, his eyes suspiciously bright. (A detail no one commented on.)

“S’an honor,” he said finally. “Thank you.”

***

Not long later, Michaela showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that she wanted her mother. Leonard, guessing correctly that the baby was hungry, beat a hasty retreat, causing Amaya--who’d had more experience than any of the rest of them with very young babies--to laugh as she stopped back to check in.

By the time he returned--after accepting a round of congratulations from Nate and Jefferson as well--Michaela’d drowsed off again, and so had Sara. Smiling at the sight, he settled himself in a chair, wanting to be close at hand if either needed him.

He couldn’t imagine anywhere else in the world he’d rather be.

***

When Sara awoke after her cat nap, it was to the sound of Leonard’s voice, speaking rather earnestly to their daughter. 

“I’m your father, and I love you, and your mother, more than anything in the whole wide world. There are so many people who love you! Uncle Mick, and Aunt Amaya, and your big sister, Sin, and lots of people you haven’t met yet.” 

Sara sat up, stretching and smiling. “I’m pretty sure she didn’t understand a word of that,” she told him with a yawn.

Len, Michaela asleep in his arms, ambled over to the bunk and sat down beside her. Sara reached out to tickle the baby’s foot. “I don’t care. I want her to hear the words, every day of her life, and know - always - that she is loved and cherished.” 

A tear trickled down Sara’s cheek, and she curled her other hand into Len’s collar, pulling him down to kiss him soundly. 

“I’m sorry,” she said after a moment. “I still...I’d hoped this tendency toward tears would fade after…”

“I’m pretty sure that takes time,” he told her, amusement in his voice as he shifted his daughter. “And it’s not like we haven’t had more than enough reason for emotion. Bad and good. It’ll pass. You’ll see.”

“True…”

Leonard chose not to point out how uncertain she sounded about the matter.

And Sara chose not to remind him again about how hard it’d been, thinking him gone forever.

* * *

That day, and the ones following it, continued with both of them (and indeed, to some extent all of the Canary’s crew) getting used to how the pattern of their days would change with a tiny dictator in their midst. Sara quickly learned to sleep when Michaela allowed her to, although Amaya assured her that as the baby’s tiny stomach grew, she’d get more of a break between the imperious demands for feeding.

Sara, who was wondering how things would work once the Canary was once more at sea, had been quite relieved at that assurance. But for the moment, she learned to ignore day and night (as her daughter did) and take her rest as she could get it.

Unfortunately, sometimes other concerns also interfered, no matter how hard she tried to bury them.

In the midst of one particularly deep doze one...day? night?...Sara reached out in her sleep, expecting to feel Leonard beside her, and encountered only empty space. 

Her eyes flew open. She was alone. Again. 

Sara sat up far too quickly, and cried out in pain. She was alone in her bunk, and the cradle was empty. Leonard was gone. Michaela was gone. In her half-awake daze, she was thrown back to that horrible time right after the fire, when she’d been facing the future alone, and somehow now her daughter was part of that loss...

A cry of utter heartbreak was wrenched from somewhere deep inside her, and her chest convulsed with sobs. She was so caught up in her pain that she didn’t hear the rapidly approaching footsteps. 

“Sara!”

She slowly raised her face to see Leonard beside the bunk. He reached out and gently smoothed her hair back from her face, then stroked her cheek. 

“I’m here, sweetling. I’m here.” 

It took a long moment for Sara’s eyes to properly focus on him. “Not a dream?” 

He slid into the bunk and pulled Sara onto his lap, wrapping his arms comfortingly around her. “No, love...I’m not a dream. I just needed to go up top for a moment. I didn’t want to wake you.” He kissed the top of her head. “You’re safe aboard The Canary. Nothing can hurt you here, and I won’t ever leave you. Do you understand?” 

Gradually, the nightmare maze of memory started to relax its grip on Sara. But...

“The baby?” she asked in a terribly small voice. 

“The baby is fine,” he soothed. “She was wet, so Amaya took her to change. We wanted you to sleep while you could.” 

Amaya’s smiling face appeared around the doorframe. “Here she is, all fresh and clean. And hungry, I think.” She gave Leonard an arch look. “Although you’re going to learn how to change her. No reason whatsoever why you can’t.”

As Leonard hastily assured her that he would, Sara held her arms out greedily, and clutched the baby tightly to her chest once Amaya passed her over. Michaela made a muffled noise of protest. 

“Easy, love,” Leonard murmured. “She’s fine. You’re safe...and I’m here.” He stroked Sara’s arm until she relaxed her hold somewhat. “There now. I think someone wants her breakfast. Dinner? Well, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

Sara shuddered, seeming to finally wake fully. She looked down at the baby and smiled. She loosened her shift and lifted Michaela to her breast, then relaxed back against Leonard’s chest, and he thought he’d never seen a more perfect picture. 

Amaya, who’d started to leave, paused as she took in the signs of her friend’s distress. Crossing the room, she poured some fresh water into a basin, and added a couple drops of Sara’s favorite lavender oil. Then she wrung out a clean cloth in the fragrant water and passed it to Leonard, who gently sponged Sara’s face and neck. 

“Better?” He laid the cool, damp cloth against the back of Sara’s neck.

She nodded. “I’m sorry. That was foolish of me…” 

“No, it wasn’t,” Amaya told her firmly. “You’ve been grieving, and scared, and worried, nearly half the time you carried that baby. It’s going to take some time to get over that. Why don’t the three of you just rest for a while?” 

“Where’d you go, anyway?” Sara grumbled softly, as the door closed behind Amaya. “Why didn’t you wake me?” 

“Sara, I just needed to -”

She looked up at him through her long eyelashes, and he knew he could never refuse her anything. (He also suspected he’d be in a great deal of trouble if their daughter ever mastered that look.) 

“You need your rest,” he protested weakly. 

“Please. I can’t wake up alone like that again...I just...I can’t. Not right now. As you said, I’m sure it’ll get better, but…”

Len sighed heavily, thinking about the nightmares he’d been coping with as well, although he tried not to let Sara see them. Whatever the League was doing to Merlyn, it wasn’t enough. Couldn’t ever **_be_** enough, for what he’d put Sara through. “You won’t. You’re not alone anymore, Sara. I promise you. Let me be strong for the both of us...just for a while.” 

Michaela finished nursing and promptly fell asleep. Leonard slipped her back into her cradle, then climbed back into the bunk. Sara curled into his side drowsily. Leonard was content to just hold her, for as long as she needed. 

He thought Sara had dropped off to sleep when she spoke again, in a tone that told him she was trying to distract herself.

“What’d you steal while you were away? I’m sure you managed something.” 

Len smirked. She knew him far too well. “I didn’t steal your ring, if that’s what you’re asking. Well...not exactly. I didn’t steal the ring from Merlyn. Not that I’d have a problem with robbing him blind, but I could never give you anything that...tainted. 

“I’d picked up a few things here and there. At first, I didn’t know where we were bound. I thought that if I could escape, I’d need to barter passage on a ship, to get back to you.” He paused, gathering himself. “That was all I could think of, Sara...getting back to you and the baby. You have to believe me -”

“I do,” Sara said soothingly. “I know you’d never abandon your child.” 

“Or you,” he reminded her firmly. He kissed the top of her head. “Anyway...when we were on our way back from Palmer House, I saw the ring in a shop window. It was perfect. I’m sure Raymond thought I’d lost my mind, but...I just had to have it for you.” 

Sara gave him a suspicious look, even as she smiled. “You got back at night, long after such shops would close.”

“Well...let’s just say I left adequate compensation. More than adequate, actually, courtesy of Malcolm Merlyn.”

“I rather like that.”

“I thought you might.”

* * *

Sara had somehow entertained the notion that once the baby was born, she’d go right back to her usual life. Her body, however, had other ideas. It wanted to sleep. A lot.  
And this continued for days after the baby’s birth, too, irritating her to no end.

Michaela also had other ideas. She wanted to sleep. A lot. But not necessarily when Sara was sleeping. And that rather complicated matters.

At least this time, when Sara awoke, she wasn’t alone in the cabin. She rolled over to see Sin seated on the floor by the cradle, carefully explaining something to the baby. (Who tended, at least, to be a rather content sort, at least when she wasn’t positive her mother was withholding food.)

“This one’s called a tiger. It’s sort of like Soot, but bigger, and with stripes. We used to have one onboard, but we took it to an island, to live with other tigers.” 

Michaela made a happy little noise and waved her hands. While Sara knew the baby couldn’t see much beyond her own nose at the time-and surely didn’t understand the words--she seemed more than content to listen to her “sister” for the moment.

Sara propped herself up on one elbow to see better. “What’s that you’ve got there?” she asked curiously. 

“It’s a present for the baby,” Sin explained, gesturing to the toy boat and assorted animals. “We all made it. Well...sort of. Jefferson made the ark, and Mister Rory carved the animals. Me and Amaya painted them, from the pictures in the Professor’s book.” 

“That’s pretty amazing. Thank you.” Sara studied the impressive collection of animals scattered across the floor. “What’s that one?” she asked, pointing to an odd-looking purplish...thing. 

“Oh, that’s Mister Rory’s kraken.” 

Sara stifled a grin. “Of course it is,” she chuckled. 

A noise from the door, then, made two of the three look around.

“Well, if it isn’t my three best girls,” Leonard drawled, leaning lazily against the doorframe. 

Sin beamed up at him, curling her feet underneath and reaching out to rock the cradle a bit. “Will you read us something from one of your books?” she asked eagerly.

Len folded his lanky limbs down onto the floor beside the cradle as Sara watched. He ruffled Sin’s hair, then lifted Michaela and kissed her forehead before settling her in his arms. 

“You’re going to spoil her,” Sara chided, grinning. She was pretty sure one could do no such thing with a baby so young.

“Pretty sure that’s my job.” He looked at Sin and winked. “Suppose I tell you a story, instead of reading something?”

Sin nodded eagerly. “Can I hold her?” 

Leonard glanced at Sara, who nodded. 

“Carefully,” she told the older girl. “Remember, she’s not a dolly. Mind her head.” 

“She’s heavier than she looks,” Sin observed as Leonard gently tucked the infant into her arms.

“Tell me about it,” Sara muttered. 

Michaela waved her hands, and Leonard extended one of his own. She wrapped an entire tiny hand around one of his fingers. 

“Now then...a story,” he said, smiling. “Sin, you’ll know this one, but Michaela won’t have heard it yet.” 

“She hasn’t heard anything yet!” Sin giggled. 

Leonard shot her a look, and she subsided. “A long, long time ago, there was a man named Noah…” 

***

Eventually, Martin called Sin for her lessons, and Michaela began fussing for Sara, which left Leonard lounging on the floor, absently picking up pieces of the Noah’s Ark and putting them down again, without making much headway towards actually putting away the playthings. 

“What’s wrong?” Sara asked, cuddling the baby, who was methodically and with great determination going about the process of filling her tiny stomach--again.

Leonard looked down at the tiger in his hand, then sighed. After a moment, he looked up at her with his heart in his eyes, and Sara was struck, yet again, by how amazingly beautiful they were. 

“When you told me we were having a baby, my first thought was that I was utterly terrified,” he said quietly. “My second was that I was gonna be the sort of father that Lewis never was. And then the next damn thing that happened was -”

“Was that you got kidnapped by an evil bastard who was threatening the lives of your family?” Sara tried to gentle the asperity out of her voice, wincing a bit as Michaela got a little...overly enthused. “Leonard, no one could ever have seen that coming.” 

“I wanted to be with you, the first time you felt her move, and I wanted to take care of you, and make her all the things she needed.” He gestured vaguely around the room, encompassing the cradle, and toys, and tiny clothes. “I wasn’t here when you needed me, and I don’t know how to make that right.” 

“I do,” Sara told him, her expression a mingling of mischief and smugness. 

Len raised an eyebrow. 

“We discussed this.” She waited a beat. “Marry me.” She grinned at him. “Marry me, surrounded by the people who stepped up to make sure that our child would know that she was loved, no matter what.” 

Leonard just stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. “You amaze me.” He dropped his gaze. “I don’t deserve you. Either of you.” 

“Yeah...I think you do.”

* * *

Sara’d drifted off again (Michaela being a very stern little taskmaster) and Leonard had a few things around the ship he’d left undone during his...ah, absence. So Amaya wasn’t all that surprised to see the father in question appear on the deck not long later, his daughter in his arms and a somewhat tentative expression on his face.

She smiled a little, fully prepared to be asked to watch the little one again--even as she decided the men about the ship were going to have to, eventually, do their fair share as well! Still, she blinked in surprise as Mick promptly stepped past her, intercepting Leonard and...well, well, well...holding out his arms for his tiny namesake.

His friend apparently had no problem with that. He deposited the bundle, wrapped in a blue blanket, into the first mate’s arms, then headed back down into the hold without more than a glance to note that Amaya’d also seen that he’d been there.

Well! Amaya, grinning, approached Mick, noting how the big man carefully shifted the baby to fit perfectly in the crook of his arm.

“Boss said she’s awake, but didn’t wanna be put down,” he muttered a little self-consciously as he saw her. “He needs some quiet for a talk with the perfessor, apparently, and the cap’n’s sleeping. So…”

“So she gets to see how her Uncle Mick runs the ship.” Amaya smiled again as she went up on her toes to get a better peek at Michaela, who peered back with wide blue eyes that were already starting to focus, or so it seemed. She seemed perfectly content to rest in Mick’s arm, although Amaya was already envisioning the days they’d all have to watch for an active toddler with the run of the ship.

“Um. Yeah, I guess so. Sorta.” He gave her an uncertain look. “You think that’s OK?”

“Why not? She might be the next captain of the ship.” Amaya winked at him. “And you can both learn for the future.”

“OK, then. Wait...what?”

But Amaya’d already turned to walk away, smiling to herself. After a moment, she heard Mick bellow something at Nate, striding over to correct something the distracted historian/sailor was doing, Michaela still nestled securely in his arm. 

Oh, yes, Amaya decided. She could see quite the future ahead of them all.

* * *

The next time Sara awoke, she was feeling considerably more lucid...and hungry. The latter probably had to do with the delectable scents emanating from the tray in front of Leonard, who was sitting at the desk. He looked up from his meal and smiled when he heard her moving. 

“Hello there,” Len greeted her. “Mick and Amaya have the baby,” he added, before Sara could begin to panic. 

“What’ve you got?” Sara asked, sitting up properly to peer at the food.

He smirked and came over to join her, and settled the tray on his lap. That smirk transformed into a broad, affectionate grin when Sara eagerly grabbed his fork and began helping herself to roast beef and gravy. 

“Where did this come from?” she finally mumbled around a mouthful of potatoes. 

“The cook from Palmer House brought it. There’s fruit and cheese and gingerbread, too.” 

Sara’s eyes widened. “I don’t even remember the last time I had gingerbread.” She glanced sheepishly at the mostly empty plate. “I’m sorry.” 

Len chuckled. “Don’t be, love. There’s plenty more, and you need to build your strength back. And you’re still eating for two...sort of.” He moved aside easily with another chuckle as Sara swatted at him. “Will you be all right if I go to the galley for another plate, and some tea? Or shall I call Sin?” 

Sara flushed, realizing that, aside from feedings, she’d slept the day through again. “I’m sorry I’ve been so…” 

“Hey. Stop. You’ve nothing to apologize for.”

“You have better things to do than sit and watch me sleep,” Sara protested. 

“No.” He leaned over to kiss her forehead, running a gentle hand through her hair. “I really, really don’t.” 

 

***

“What would you like to do today?” Leonard asked, when they had polished off another tray of food and settled Michaela down again. He was sensing that Sara had probably had all the bed rest she would tolerate, for a while anyway. (And since Amaya and Stein had assured him that she really had come through childbirth in as good a shape as was possible, there was no problem at all with that.)

“I think I’d like to bathe.” Sara grinned at him with a wicked little glimmer in her eyes. “And then I think I’d like to get married.” 

Leonard, still a touch disbelieving but unwilling to argue, shook his head. “I’ll fetch Amaya to help you bathe,” he offered. The women had been booting him out for such things since Michaela’s birth and, still vaguely uneasy about what Sara’d been through physically in the process, he’d let them.

“Not Amaya. You.” 

“Sara, I’m pretty sure…” Sara gave him that **_look,_** from under her eyelashes, and he sighed in an odd combination of affection and exasperation and resignation. “Right. I’ll see about some hot water.” 

***

Much later than it should have taken two people to simply bathe, Sara looked up at Len. **_“Now_** you can fetch Amaya to help with my dress. You can help me take it off, later,” she promised. 

Len swallowed hard and tried to make his errant body behave itself, especially since it’d still be weeks before... “Is that blue silk suit still in the wardrobe?”

“It is,” Sara all but purred. “No wig,” she added. 

“Yes, ma’am. And I suppose...I really ought to go discuss this whole marrying us thing with Martin, shouldn’t I?” 

“Probably,” Sara laughed, standing just a touch gingerly, something Leonard still couldn’t help feeling a bit guilty about. “Go, Leonard. I’m fine.”

* * *

In response to their hastily issued invitation, Raymond’s gardener had arrived with a large basket of roses and lavender. Amaya had artfully fashioned a wreath for Sara’s hair. The colors complimented the design of her silk gown. 

“You look absolutely beautiful,” Amaya said sincerely, taking a step back to give her friend and captain a thorough once-over.

“Thank you.” 

Along with the flowers, a gift had been delivered from Raymond’s wife - a lovely dress for the baby. It was precisely what propriety dictated. The fine materials were a delicate display of Raymond’s wealth, and the exquisite needlework a demonstration of his wife’s accomplishments. Sara was sure that the gesture was heartfelt, at least on Raymond’s part. And yet, when Amaya picked it up to dress the baby, Sara stopped her. 

“Not that one.” 

“But it’s so pretty.” 

“I know...but this is a moment for family.” Sara pulled the basket with Michaela’s things closer and picked through it carefully. “This one,” she said firmly. 

It was a very simple frock made of pink gingham. One sleeve was a bit shorter than the other, and the hem was a trifle uneven, but Sin had made it for her baby sister, and Sara cherished that more than any costly garment. 

Amaya smiled. “Yes. Of course. This one...is perfect.”

* * *

Leonard was waiting on deck with Martin, Mick, and Sin, as well as the rest of their crew gathered around him. He cut quite the dashing figure in the midnight blue suit and fine white linen he’d worn to the grand ball during their first adventure together. His breath caught in his throat when Sara appeared on deck. 

Mick noticed. “Snart,” he whispered. No reaction. “Snart!” He swatted his friend with the back of his hand, and Leonard sucked in a startled gasp of air. 

Sara looked positively angelic. The shimmery blue silk was as lovely on her as he’d imagined, even loosely laced to accommodate her current state. There were fresh flowers in her hair, and that silly little blue glass pendant twinkled in the sunlight. And she carried **_their child_** cradled in her arms. (Michaela was even cooperating by sleeping soundly for the occasion.)

When she stepped into place next to him, he laid a gentle hand on the baby’s head and smiled at his bride. 

“You should keep that suit,” Sara murmured, eyeing him appreciatively. 

“I’d rather keep you.” 

Len leaned in and kissed her cheek, and Sara smiled merrily. “Pretty sure that’s what we’re here for.” 

Martin cleared his throat, and there was a ripple of laughter from the group. “If I could have your attention, just for a few moments?” 

Martin smiled beneficently at them. “Leonard, Sara, dear friends. I’m going to spare you the Hebrew, since none of you would understand a word of it. I am also unfamiliar with the Church of England marriage rite, and unsure as to the legality of this proceeding -”

“So yer gonna make it up?” Mick suggested, to another round of quiet laughter. 

“Precisely, Mister Rory.” As Mick barked a laugh (and Sara looked daggers at him for making Michaela stir), the professor continued. “Leonard and Sara, you have demonstrated your love for each other, repeatedly, in your words and in your actions. It has been my privilege and my pleasure to watch you grow closer, and bring out the best in one another.”

He paused a moment. “You have already declared your devotion to one another in private. Now I ask that you repeat those words of your own choosing, before this company.” 

Sara reached out and took Leonard’s hand. She raised it to her lips and kissed the ring she’d placed there long ago. “My whole heart for my whole life.” 

Leonard slid the beautiful sapphire ring onto Sara’s hand, beside the smaller one he’d given her before. He gently kissed her hand, then cradled it in both his own. “The words on this ring were only for you, but now there’s two of you, so...my whole heart for my whole life, for both of you.” 

For a moment, Sara looked as though she might burst into tears at that declaration, then she crashed her mouth into Len’s, perhaps more ardently than the occasion called for--but he was hardly about to complain. 

Fortunately, the presence of baby Michaela in Sara’s arms kept the moment from progressing a bit _too far_ beyond the boundaries of propriety. They broke apart, to a chorus of huzzahs and laughter. (And a small yowl from the baby.) 

Raymond beat the others as he stepped over to shake hands. He offered Leonard a small velvet pouch. 

“What’s this?” 

The inventor grinned as Leonard tipped out a string of seed pearls into the palm of his hand, and Sara, watching, let out a low “oooh” of appreciation. “Some little pearls for your little Pearl,” Raymond explained, obviously proud of his joke. He pulled another pouch from his pocket and handed it to Sara. “For Sin. Wouldn’t want her to feel left out. I got them from that jeweler you seemed so fond of.” 

Len just rolled his eyes at that. 

Sara smiled, then reached up to kiss the inventor’s cheek. “Raymond, you’ve been beyond kind.” She nodded towards the table set up in the bow of the ship, where two of the Palmer House staff were serving cakes and wine. 

“It was my pleasure, Sara. Truly. You gave me the biggest adventure of my life, and now you’ve all saved my family. Again.” 

He glanced over at Sin, looking rather more grown up than he remembered, daintily nibbling at a cake and dressed in her pretty linen gown. “My offer still stands, you know. If Sin ever wanted to attend school, or even just live in one place for a while -” 

“Thank you,” Sara told him gently, “maybe someday, but not right now.” She glanced down at the baby in her arms. “I wouldn’t ever want her to think that she was being displaced. And...we’ve only just got Leonard back.” 

“We all need some time together,” Leonard added. 

“Of course. But just remember - if there’s anything you ever need -”

“We know where to find you,” Sara replied, smiling at him as Mick and Amaya approached with their own regards. “You’re family.”

* * *

A while later, after a very enjoyable time spent with their own found family, the two honorees of the day finally found themselves back in their cabin, a bit weary, a bit overwhelmed by the goodwill with which they’d been showered, but very, very content.

Len carefully draped Sara’s dress over a chest while she sank gratefully into her chair. 

“Are you all right?” 

“Very much so.” 

Sara’s crown of flowers had slipped to one side, giving her a slightly rakish air that he found delightful. She looked adorable, Len thought, though he knew better than to voice that particular word choice. She tipped her head and smiled quizzically as he pulled up the other chair, so close that their legs brushed. 

Len picked up one of Sara’s hands and kissed it, his breath warming her fingers. Then he turned her hand over delicately and kissed her palm. He smirked, and Sara’s breath caught in her throat as he moved to the inside of her wrist, and his tongue brushed her pulse point. 

“You’re teasing me,” she murmured. “You know we can’t…”

“Yes...but that doesn’t mean…”

And then there was a tap at the door, followed by the sound of an unhappy newborn. “Sara? I’m so sorry to disturb you,” Amaya said apologetically through the crack, “but the baby needs you.” 

Sara sighed, and Len stood very carefully, grateful to still be wearing his long waistcoat. He accepted the fussing baby from Amaya, who closed the door softly. 

“What’s all this racket, young lady?” he asked his daughter whimsically. “You’re as noisy as your Uncle Mick’s kraken!” 

Michaela eyed him momentarily, then renewed her fussing. 

“She’s hungry, Len,” Sara chuckled. “God forbid she go two hours without eating. Give her here.” 

He tried to kiss the baby’s head, and got smacked with a tiny flailing hand for his trouble. “She’s a feisty little thing.” 

“Well, she ** _is_** my daughter.” 

Sara settled the baby at her breast while Leonard laid aside his waistcoat. He knelt at Sara’s feet and carefully removed her shoes, chuckling as she wriggled her toes in relief. 

A smoldering look flickered up from under his lashes was all the warning Sara had before Len’s hands ran up her leg to her garter. He carefully untied it and set it aside, then slid her silk stocking down her leg in the most distracting fashion. Sara’s cheeks were flushed by the time he’d repeated his actions. 

Leonard settled himself more comfortably on the floor and lifted Sara’s feet into his lap, gently massaging them. She shifted the baby to her other breast, earning a faint, cut-off squall. Leonard watching, noted how her shift had slipped down off her shoulders. And she had those flowers in her hair, and **_their_** baby in her arms. 

“What is it?” she asked, after glancing up, startled by the raw emotion on his face. 

“I just...I didn’t think this was anything I ever wanted, once.” He drank them in with his eyes, his wife and his daughter. “And now…”

The corner of Sara’s mouth lifted, just a little. “I know, Len. I know.”

 

***

Some amount of time later, Leonard woke from a doze to feel the ship moving away from the dock. Sara, curled up next to him, blinked up at him with a smug little smile. 

“Where’re we going?” he asked sleepily.

“It’s called a honeymoon, Len.” 

Oh. Oh! “OK, but where are we going?

“Egypt.” 

“Why Egypt?” Len asked curiously, blinking at her before craning his neck a little to see Michaela sound asleep in her cradle.

“You’re a jewel thief by trade,” his bride asked him with amusement. “Are you telling me you don’t want to see the place where some of the most famous jewels in history came from?” 

Well, when she put it that way… “But Sara - I can’t steal any of them because they’re all cursed!” he retorted, laughter creeping into his tone.

Sara laughed in return, but after a moment’s silence, he looked back at her to see all traces of teasing gone. “It’s the most beautiful and amazing place, and I’d like to show it to you, all right? And by the time we get there…”

Any limits on certain...activities...should be lifted. “All right,” he agreed, pushing a bit of hair out of her face.

“They have lions, but you can’t steal one of those, either. I mean it!” A smile lurked around her mouth again.

“What about one of those birds with the really long legs?” he teased. “A friend for Verdant.” 

“No, Leonard.” 

He wrapped his arms more firmly around her and kissed her hair “That’s all right. I’ve got all the treasures I need, right here.”


End file.
